We were away for almost two weeks for our family vacation in Yellowstone (full blog entry to come) and came back to find the above chillin' in the garden! Needless to say, the state fair-sized ones are past their prime, but I am busy canning the ones that are suitable for pickling. 
If you are craving pickles, you should head on over! Yesterday I picked 7 fresh cucumbers from the garden. Knowing that I couldn't eat enough salads for that many cucumbers to be involved in, I used some old jam jars and a pickle mix and made some of my own pickles! It was very fun. Charlotte and I got a lot done today - we hung at the pool with our friends for a long time, did sock laundry (the worst!), weeded the garden and mowed the foot long grass in the backyard despite much protest from the lawnmower. I also had to get out some weedkiller. Apparently some very determined weeds are busting right through the landscape fabric and mulch in the rose bed. More mulch may be needed. Anyway, it is good to keep busy while Helaman works so much. We miss you H!
This weekend Steve and Kalina came to visit us from Houston to celebrate a hot, hot, humid weekend here. Thanks for hanging out and leaving so many good treats and leftovers in our fridge! Charlotte keeps asking for "Steves" and "Tina" who she loved playing with. We will see you soon!
Last week the Ericksons came to visit us during Helaman's week off. We had fun going to the Book Depository Museum downtown, visiting family, eating out and seeing Charlotte follow her "honey" and "bear" around. She still won't say "grandpa" or "grandma"! We've had a hard time adjusting to Helaman's being gone all the time after having him home all year. He's now working 12 hour shifts every day, and staying overnight on call every few days.
Our first garden harvest were these two HUGE, delicious cucumbers! I had just about given up on the plants producing anything, but these were hidden amongst all the leaves. 
I can't even keep up with the garden's growth - the corn is as high as the fence and we can see the ears developing. Yum!!!
Our favorite little plant is also growing like crazy so we got her a real bed to sleep in. She loves climbing in and out of it.
New buds are already emerging and I think the roses are thankful. The garden is also doing well, though I'm nervous about the cucumber plants trying to take over the whole area... 
Here is the same scene today, after about three days of torrential rain. 
Here are the rest of our plants. Life will find a way.
Here is our rosemary, mint, basil, parsley and cilantro collection.
Despite great neglect, our roses also bloomed beautifully.
Most of the sharks came very close but weren't too interested in us. They were more interested in the fish being thrown from our boat.
At one point there was a whole herd of them circling the cage! It was amazing!
The day we flew back from Hawaii to Houston, we drove back to Dallas. The next morning we flew out again, this time to Salt Lake City for Steve and Kalina's wedding. By the way, now that you're married - where's the blog?
Posing for some pictures of our own. If I don't look tan it is because I was VERY good about sunscreen in Hawaii. The thought of having an itchy back on a plane scares me.
Me with 3 of my 5 beautiful sisters.
Family pic
Charlotte and Wade
Airplane shot of Oahu
Checked into the Ilikai Hotel on Waikiki Beach. My parents let us use their time share there this year. Thanks!! It was really nice to be so close to the beach.
That night we walked out to the ocean. Not too many swimmers at night! So we headed to the spa.
View from the hotel's roof restaurant. This is where we went to a timeshare sales pitch in order to get some money for activities.
Next day brought Hanauma Bay snorkeling and laying around. Just what I needed.
Saturday it rained and we headed to a huge swap meet in Aloha Stadium where we bought a lot of random Hawaiian stuff. Here is Helaman drinking from a coconut.
Luckily later that night it cleared up and we went to dinner right on the beach at Duke's.
The LDS Chapel in Honolulu.
USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.
Monday bright and early we headed to the North Shore where we had a shark cage outing!
More pictures will be coming on this one when we get our underwater camera film developed. It was really fun and different from most things you can do in Hawaii. The sharks were about 10-12 feet and they came right up to the boat when the guides started throwing fish out. It was cool to see them so near to the boat, and even more amazing to see them underwater closely circling the floating cage we were in. We could have reached out and touched them - obviously that wasn't advised.
Survived! High recommend! From the boat we also saw a huge whale having some fun in the ocean breaching.
Afterward we stopped by the Hawaiian Temple in Laie which is under renovation.
Here we are the next day at Valley of Temples Memorial Park, which is a huge graveyard with temples like this Byodo-In Temple, built to commemorate the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii.
Then we headed to Kualoa Ranch for an ATV tour of all the places they film movies and shows.
The ranch was beautiful and we especially loved the fresh guava you could pick from the trees and eat whole! Here we are at the Jurassic Park location.
Here's the Pearl Harbor film location. I don't remember that movie so well, but LOST fans will recognize this structure as a Dharma station, specifically where Jack and Juliette kissed.
At Hurley's Golf Course.
We both climbed up this tower from the "Jughead" episode. Remember, the bomb was buried.
Last stop on our way home was to the blowhole lookout. From here you could see many humpback whales surfacing.
Goodbye Hawaii - til next time!
